Muleshoe man part of Reagan goodbye

A Muleshoe man said he felt he was part of history when he traveled to Washington, D.C., to see the casket of former President Ronald Reagan as it lay in state in the nation’s capital.

Gil Rennels, a fifth-generation Texas Republican and co-owner of Gil Lamb Advertising/Channel 6 in Muleshoe, said he was visiting friends in Dallas when he heard of Reagan’s death. Ironically, they had just visited the Dealey Plaza Museum there, with its pictures of former President Kennedy’s state funeral, he said.

“When I heard about the ceremonies for President Reagan, I knew I had to go. President Reagan had more impact on the modern Republican Party than anyone else,” he said.

After a flight from Lubbock to Baltimore, then a shuttle to Washington, D.C., Rennels arrived at his hotel at 1 a.m. on Wednesday. That afternoon he went to the corner of 16th Street and Constitution Avenue to try to find a good spot to watch Reagan’s casket on its trip to the Capitol rotunda, where, already, 200 people were lined up to visit.

When he joined the line a little later, it had grown to between 400 and 500. Rennels said he felt lucky to get that close to the front, as the line continued to grow.

“In front of me were the barricades where the press were. It was right where the honor guard would take the casket off the caisson on which it had ridden up the avenue, then carry it up the Capitol steps,” he said.

The Associated Press reported tens of thousands viewed the casket at the Capitol.

The caisson didn’t get there until 7 p.m., but Rennels said the mood of the crowd made it a pleasure to stand there.

“Everyone was excited. It wasn’t really a somber crowd. They were excited to be a part of history. Everyone was helping each other out,” he said.

Having served as an intern to U.S. Rep. Larry Combest, R-Lubbock, in 1996, Rennels had been in the Capitol before, but it has been refurbished since then and, as he entered the rotunda, the effect was dazzling, he said.

“The atmosphere was somber, very quiet. All you could hear were the news photographers’ cameras off to the side, constantly clicking,” Rennels said.

“It seemed to go by way too fast. And I had the surreal feeling I was walking on air. It was like am I really doing this? Is this real? I’m glad C-SPAN was there recording people walking through the rotunda. They caught me on camera and my mom saw it. It was a record that it had been a real experience,” he said.

Rennels said the most moving sight he saw that day was a “missing man” formation flown by U.S. Air Force pilots.

“I’d seen other ‘missing man’ formations, but those had been seven planes where the wing man would leave the formation and fly away. This one had five groups of planes that kept coming and coming. Then, the last plane broke away and headed straight up, until it disappeared,” he said.

On Friday, he watched as Reagan’s casket was moved from the Capitol to the National Cathedral.

The trip, Rennels said, “was the closest I’ve ever been to something that meant that much to a lot of people.”

“I think, because Reagan had been out of office for 14 years, a lot of the controversy and bitterness that grew out of the politics of the time had faded, and the nation in total could mourn the passing of a president,” he said.